Tracy Morgan doesn't apologize for making audiences squirm

Despite having just released his latest stand-up special, "Bona Fide," in April, Tracy Morgan has no interest in talking about the value of prepared material vs. telling jokes off the top of his close-cropped head.

The 45-year-old Brooklyn native and veteran of "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock," is renowned for his loose, unpredictable sets, which have created controversy with their raw language and befuddled some audiences who expected a more gentle, straightforward evening of laughs.

And he likes it that way.

"It's politically incorrect and it's improvised," Morgan said over the phone last week. "But I'm not focused on 'doing material.' That's what I can't stand, when people focus on the material when you should be focusing on the funny! It's like Bruce Lee says in 'Enter the Dragon,' 'It's like a finger pointing the way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.' "

Morgan has a reputation for mentally ping-ponging during his shows and interviews, vacillating between non-sequitur tirades and more thoughtful appraisals of his upbringing and career. It's part of his absurdist charm, and something that led "30 Rock" creator and co-star Tina Fey to remark to The New York Times, "He's like a raw piece of wood — there are scratchy parts, and there are splinters coming off it, but you're seeing its natural beauty."

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There's also a reason Morgan continues to headline venues like Denver's Paramount Theatre, which he'll do on June 1. His no-holds-barred comedy is refreshing (and, at times, shocking and confusing) to audiences raised on tidy, five-minute talk show comedy routines — even in the world of modern stand-up, where raw truth is prized above all else.

People who walk into a Tracy Morgan set expecting gentle hand-holding, are clearly unfamiliar with his work, he said.

"People need to think outside the box when they come to my show, and pay attention. They can't be like, 'I wonder what he's going to talk about! I wonder if he's going to be funny!' They don't allow themselves to laugh because they're too busy worrying about something else."

Morgan's early life was nothing but worry. Born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, he watched his Vietnam-vet father die of AIDS before his father reached the age of 40. Morgan got married and became a father himself before finishing high school, eventually dropping out and turning to drug dealing.

These Wikipedia bullet points in Morgan's life aren't just a script he follows. They course through everything he does, and you can't blame him for channeling his jokes through them, Morgan said. Humor is his fundamental coping skill.

"It comes from growing up in the 'hood. I'm a high school dropout, I never went to college, and it's that infamous, promiscuous, no-money, got-to-have-sex-to-feel-good thing. That's what I'm about. I talk about where I come from and that makes some people uncomfortable. They get upset, but you can't be mad at me. I'm just telling you what I've observed."

Some of his audience's discomfort stems from incidents in which Morgan was criticized for having observed a little too much on stage. After a 2011 show in Nashville, he apologized publicly for remarks some interpreted as homophobic. Six months later he came under fire again for joking about disabled children at a club show in New York City.

But Morgan, who got his big break in 1994 with a bit part on the Fox sitcom "Martin," said he prizes his time on stage far too much to blunt the impact of his thoughts.

"Some places I go, I got to dumb down," he said. "And I hate dumbing down."

Morgan pointed to Denver audiences as among those who possess the maturity to "get it," and after a few minutes of conversation, he decided maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to discuss his material and joke-writing process — including the possibility of developing another stand-up special in the near future.

"It's all about confidence. That's what all this stand-up stuff is," he said. "When my spirit is good and I'm confident about the material, it's time to go. You've got to be in a good space and have good people around you. So the next one's going to be electric, too. I'm always thinking about the next one. But right now I'm just on the road having fun and working on new stuff. When I'm on stage I'm in the lab and I'm always creating new experiments."

John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel

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